The Owens After Dark

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the Owens Art Gallery? Have you heard about the history of its diverse collection, but wondered where all those paintings and sculptures sleep at night? Who takes care of them, and how? What hidden secrets lie unseen beneath Canada’s oldest university art gallery?

On 23 March from 7 to 9PM, the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison Campus, opens its doors and invites you to explore the Gallery after dark, in the first nighttime edition of its annual Open House.

At The Owens After Dark, you can relax in the Gallery’s lobby and sip hot chocolate, or take part in the creation of a collective animation that will grow throughout the night. Tour the current exhibitions: The Spirit of Things, a major retrospective show of the work of painter Walter Tandy Murch, and Told Untold, an exhibition about stories curated by this year’s gallery intern. You can venture down into the seldom-seen Painting Vault, where the Owens’ large collection of artworks lives on long rows of moving wall panels, and into the Fine Art Conservation Laboratory, where the Gallery’s Conservator will show you artworks in various states of repair and the tools that are used to care for them. Throughout the evening, chat with knowledgeable gallery staff about the programming, the inner workings, and the 110-year history of the Owens.

The Owens After Dark is sponsored by the Friends of the Owens, and is free and open to the public.